“Oh, stuff and nonsense,” Jomaine said wearily. “The only thing close to robotics worship is the Ironhead organization, and their only belief is that robots are the magic solution to everything. They’re here looking for a reason to cause trouble. It’s the only reason they go anywhere. And I promise you-if wedon’t give them a reason for a fight, they’ll do their best to find one. The only question is whether the police are here in enough force to keep them from succeeding.”
“But what about the rest of the people out there?” Fredda asked.
“My dear, you are not going to manage a blanket conversion tonight,” Jomaine said in a far gentler voice. “ At best you will open a debate. If we are lucky, people will start thinking about what you say. Some will take one side, some another. They will argue.If we are lucky, things that people have taken for granted all their lives will suddenly be topical issues. That is the best we can hope for.” Jomaine cleared his throat delicately, a prim little noise. “ And,” he added in rather dry tones, “the fact that you are going to present them all with one hell of afait accompli at the end of the evening should intensify that debate, just ever so slightly.”
Fredda smiled. “Yes, I suppose you’re right. It’s not going to be over tonight.” She turned toward Gubber again, but noticed he had wandered off toward the other end of the stage, and was chatting with Tonya Welton while the Governor sat waiting quietly at the table. “It’s gotten to Gubber more than any of us, hasn’t it?” Fredda said. “Since all this started, he’s in the worst shape I’ve ever seen him.”
Jomaine Terach grunted noncommittally. Gubber was undoubtedly even more tightly strung than usual, but Jomaine was not entirely convinced it had all that much to do with ‘the Caliban crisis or the N.L. robots. Jomaine could not imagine that conducting a supposedly secret romance with Tonya Welton would be all that relaxing an activity.
Did Fredda know about the affair? It seemed at least possible she did not. The way gossip moved through the average workplace, the boss was often the last to know.Should I tell her? he asked himself for the hundredth time. And for the hundredth time, he came to the same conclusion. Given the strained relations between Leving Labs and the Limbo Project-in other words, between Fredda and Tonya-Jomaine could see no point in telling Fredda and giving her something else to worry about.
“Come on, Fredda,” he said. “It’s nearly time to start again.”
“WE cannot talk here!” Tonya hissed angrily under her breath. She hated this, but there was no help for it. Here was Gubber, not half a meter from her. And instead of reaching out to him, throwing her arms around him, and feeling the warmth of his embrace, she was forced to snap at him, to stand apart, to make it seem that he was the last man in the world she wanted to be with. “It’ s bad enough that this charade has forced us to appear in public on the same stage, but we cannot be seentalking together. The situation is bad enough without one of Kresh’ s goons putting two and two together.”
“The-the curtain is drawn closed,” Gubber said, awkwardly wringing his hands together. “Kresh can’t see us.”
“For all we know, he has undercover surveillance robots working as stagehands, or listening devices trained on the backstage area,” Tonya said, struggling to keep her voice firm. For both their sakes, she dare not give in to him, much as she wanted to do.
“Why in the world would he do that?” Gubber asked, deeply confused.
“Because he might already suspect. There’ s gossip about us, I’m sure of it. If he has heard any of it, he might be very interested to hear what we have to say to each other. So we must saynothing. We can’t meet, and we must assume that every comm system will be tapped. We must have no direct contact with each other until this is over, or everything will be ruined.”
“But how can we-” Gubber began, but then it seemed that he could not bear to say more. The poor man. She could see it in his eyes. He thought this was the end. Tonya’s heart welled up with sadness. He was always so afraid that she was going to break off with him, cut her losses, reduce her risk. He thought it a mad dream to think a woman like her would want a fellow like him.
How little he knew. Half the Settler women Tonya knew would do anything to have a man like Gubber, a gentle, thoughtful man who knew how to treat a woman with affection and courtesy. Settler men were so full of bluster, so determined to prove their virility with yet another conquest. “Tonya smiled to herself. Not that Gubber had anything to prove on that score.
“Gubber, Gubber,” Tonya said, her voice suddenly soft and gentle. “Darling. I can see what you’re thinking, and it’s just not so. I’m not going to leave you. I could never do that. But with the way things are, it would be almost suicidal for us to meet or use the comm nets. I’ll send Ariel to you with a message later tonight. That’ s all we dare risk. All right?”
Tonya saw the wave of relief wash over him. It was going to be all right.
“Thank you,” he said, “Come on. They’re about to start.”
ALVAR Kresh was in his seat in the first row of the auditorium, Donald accompanying him. Alvar Kresh was the only person whose personal robot was permitted to stay. Rank hath its privileges-and he needed Donald close.
“Excuse me, sir. I am receiving an encrypted transmission. Stand by. Reception is complete.”
On the other hand, there were times when having Donald close could be a positive nuisance. This was not the best time or place to receive a confidential document. “Hell. The lecture’ s about to start. Read it, Donald, and tell me if it will keep until after the lecture.”
“Yes, sir. One moment.” Donald stared off into nothing at all for several seconds and then came back to life. “Sir, I believe you had best read it at once. It is a raw transcript of the first interview with the robot Horatio. Robopsychologist Patras appears to have been successful in pulling the robot out of catatonia.”
“What’s in the transcript?”
“Sir, I think you should read it for yourself. I would not wish to color your reactions, and I must admit that I find the contents rather-disturbing. I would find it most unpleasant to discuss them.”
Kresh grunted in annoyance. It seemed as if Donald’s mental state was getting to be more and more delicate. Well, police robots had to be on the lookout for that, but it was getting to be an all-too-frequent inconvenience. “All right, all right,” he said. “Print me out a hard copy and maybe I can get through it before Leving starts her talk.”
There was a soft whirring noise from inside Donald, and a door slid open on his chest, revealing a slot. Paper started to feed out from the slot, a page at a time. Donald caught each page neatly in his left hand and transferred it to his right. He handed the pages to Kresh.
Kresh began to read, absently handing each page back to Donald as he was done.
And then Kresh began to swear.
“Most disturbing, as I said, sir.”
Alvar Kresh nodded. He dared not discuss this openly with Donald, not here in public, not with the other members of the audience all around. Best not to say anything direct at all. Clearly Donald had come to the same conclusion.
No wonder Donald had found the transcript upsetting. No wonder this Horatio robot had come unhinged. If the very clear implications in this transcript were accurate, then there was a robot out there that did not have the Three Laws.
No. He could not believe it.No one would be insane enough to build a robot without the Laws. There had to be some other explanation. There had to be some mistake.
Except Caliban, the robot in question, had been built by the woman up on the stage, who had used her first lecture to say how robots were no good for humans. So why the devil was she shielding the rogue robot who had attacked her? Alvar Kresh handed the last page to Donald, and the robot slipped the pages of the document into a storage slot on the side of his body.